Thomas G. Field, Jr.
Professor of LawFranklin Pierce Law Center
2 White Street
Concord, NH 03301
Phone: (603) 513-5147
fax: (603) 225-9647
tfield@piercelaw.edu
A.B. (Chemistry), J.D., West Virginia University
LL.M. (Trade Regulation), New York University
Professor Field's curricular responsibilities include Administrative Process (emphasis on IP and technological regulation), two sections of Fundamentals of IP (for first year and other students lacking IP backgrounds) -- both using his own casebooks. He also teaches copyright law. Syllabi and related materials are linked from Courses in the left-hand navigation panel.
Before helping launch the Law Center in 1973, Professor Field examined patents (alkene polymers). He also taught and practiced briefly in Ohio.
Field is admitted to several bars but is active outside the Law Center only as a consultant, expert witness or third party neutral. Yet, during four years as a consumer-advocate-arbitrator, he helped resolve more than 150 Chrysler warranty disputes. He has also arbitrated and mediated disputes under the aegis of the American Arbitration Association and the New Hampshire Public Employee Labor Relations Board.
Five of his computer-assisted instruction (CAI) exercises exploring arbitration fundmentals have, since 1988, been distributed by the Center for Computer Assisted Legal Instruction. Those exercises were originally prepared using software for authoring CAI that won Field first prize in a 1989 non-commercial programming contest sponsored by the Apple Programmers and Developers Association.
Professor Field hosts and moderates an intellectual property (IP) professors' listserv and has been active on other professional and academic email lists. For several years, he was also FPLC's (content) webmaster.
He a charter member of the Editorial Advisory Board of the U.S. PATENTS QUARTERLY (BNA) and has been a regular columnist ("7+ on the IP Richter Scale") for ipFrontline since 2004; his columns are listed on a biographical page.
Conferences Field has chaired or co-chaired have, since 1976, explored wide-ranging law/science and technology topics. Two involved public participation in risk management and two involved the human genome project. One led to his founding RISK, a refereed, interdisciplinary quarterly.
More than 150,000 of his IP booklets for nonlawyers were distributed before the advent of the web; now such information is more readily kept current and available online.
Personal notes
After short stints as a quality control technician and analytical chemist, I decided to attend law school. Colleagues from that time were, at best, highly skeptical, but, as is true of many who have gone to law from non-traditional backgrounds, I enjoy an exciting career.
In that respect, I am fortunate to have spent most of it where I was long been encouraged to pursue issues at the boundaries of law and technology. I have also fortunate to enjoy interaction with students consistently representing many nations.
It has been very satisfying to have helped develop outstanding IP programs in which students can acquire, within three years, many of the skills and more substantive knowledge than I did in five or six.
Those considering an IP career should see my discussions for people with and without technical backrounds. I am happy to hear from people who share my varied interests.
